The 30th Opening Anniversary Exhibition SHIOMI Mieko × FLUXUS

Part 1 June 5 [Thu.] – June 14 [Sat.] 2025
Part 2 June 18 [Wed.] – June 28 [Sat.] 2025
11:00 - 19:00
※Exhibit changes on June 17, Gallery closed Sun., Mon., and national holidays.

We are pleased to present the second SHIOMI Meiko's exhibition “SHIOMI Mieko × FLUXUS”. This exhibition will feature SHIOMI Mieko's long-standing collections of Fluxus works and materials all at once, focusing on her new works and installations. In addition, we will publish “SHIOMI Mieko x FLUXUS”, a collection of approximately 200 works and materials by Fluxus artists, including Shiomi's works. The text includes an interview with Shiomi about her activities in Japan during the 1960s.

Shiomi began piano lessons at her early age and entered the Department of Musicology of the Tokyo University of the Arts.
While still a student, she formed “Group Ongaku” with Kosugi Takehisa and others, and went to New York in 1964 to join Fluxus.
“Fluxus“ is an avant-garde art movement advocated by George Maciunas that is not limited by existing methods of expression, and is based on the idea that ”anyone can be an artist, anything can be an artist“ and the spirit of "finding ‘art’ in daily life". The movement began in 1962 and involved many artists.
From Japan, four female artists participated; SHIOMI Mieko, ONO Yoko, KUBOTA Shigeko, and SAITO Takako.
After returning to Japan, she has taken part in Fluxus events abroad, as well as has been continuing to work across genres, including performance, composition of musical works, and visual poetry in Japan.

Artists: SHIOMI Mieko, Eric Andersen, Francesco Conz, Jean-Pierre Dupuy, Albert M. Fine, Dick Higgins, Alice Hutchins, Jiří Kolář, Larry Miller, Ben Patterson, Dieter Roth, Tomas Schmit, Paul Sharits, Endre Tót, Jiří Valoch, Emmett Williams, George Maciunas, Allan Kaprow, Al Hansen, Robert Filliou, Henry Flynt, Ken Friedman, Alison Knowles, ONO Yoko, Nam June Paik, Ben Vautier, and others.

■SHIOMI Mieko
Born in Okayama Prefecture in 1938. Graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts Department of Musicology in 1961. During her studies, together with Kosugi Takehisa and others she formed “Group・Ongaku” and created tape music and improv performances. In 1963 she was introduced to Fluxus by Nam June Paik, and in the following year, went to New York by George Maciunas’ invitation. In 1965 she came up with the “Spatial Poem” series conducted through international mail, and held 9 events over 10 years. After pursuing the performance art that triggered the initial event, she settled on intermedia. Moved to Osaka in 1970. Since then, she has composed many pieces of chamber music focused on voice and words.

Her invitation to the Fluxus Festival in Venice in 1990 reignited relationships with European and American artists. Participated in events like FLUXUS VIRUS in Cologne in 1992 and SeOUL NYmAX held by Jonas Mekas and Nam June Paik in New York in 1994; domestically, she planned performances like Fluxus Media Opera and Fluxus Trial, as well as collaborative visual poetry like Fluxus Balance. Held solo exhibitions at Donguy Gallery in Paris in 1995 and Hundertmark Gallery in Cologne in 1998. She also created several works and editions for group exhibitions in Europe and the United States.

Advocated the concept of “transmedia”, the expression of a single concept across differing mediums, at the “Intermedia/Transmedia” talk & performance at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, in 2012.

Aside from musical work and performances, Shiomi’s visual poetry, object poems, and other works are collected by many museums across the world. She currently works as an invited researcher at Kyoto City University of the Arts Archival Research Center.

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